My suggestion at getting more NON-UK fans at the SEC Tourney.

#1

Vfl2407

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#1
This is not an anti UK fan post.
I just think it's sad that every year that it's just basically a big blue convention.

The current system has each school with a certain number of tickets that they just primarily sell to anyone and UK fans just get online or the phone and by them all.

I think I know a way to change that.
All 14 teams will have an allotment of a minimum of 500 tickets with the option of getting a maximum of 1,000.
Those tickets must either be sold to that schools own donors or season ticket holders or proof of fandom by in state drivers license or a body tattoo or some such, lol. If they can not sell those 500 tickets, instead of then putting them on the open market where UK fans would gobble them up, the school must give the remainder of them to their students for free and the school absorbs the cost of those tickets.

No, this isn't foolproof.
I know some schools fans will still sell their tix to UK fans.
But, it's better than the current system which might as well just be played in Lexington every year.
 
#2
#2
This is not an anti UK fan post.
I just think it's sad that every year that it's just basically a big blue convention.

The current system has each school with a certain number of tickets that they just primarily sell to anyone and UK fans just get online or the phone and by them all.

I think I know a way to change that.
All 14 teams will have an allotment of a minimum of 500 tickets with the option of getting a maximum of 1,000.
Those tickets must either be sold to that schools own donors or season ticket holders or proof of fandom by in state drivers license or a body tattoo or some such, lol. If they can not sell those 500 tickets, instead of then putting them on the open market where UK fans would gobble them up, the school must give the remainder of them to their students for free and the school absorbs the cost of those tickets.

No, this isn't foolproof.
I know some schools fans will still sell their tix to UK fans.
But, it's better than the current system which might as well just be played in Lexington every year.

The system in place is each university gets like 1,000, rough estimate, used to be alot more when played in the Georgia Dome, and donors get the first crack at them. Same as bowl tickets. If donors do not buy all available then they are put on sale to the public. Usually there are quite a few schools that don't sell out due to either bad seasons, proximity to venue, etc and UK fans buy them by the boatload. And usually they also buy the majority of tickets online thru secondhand markets such as StubHub because they're the fanbase that's willing to drive the farthest and spend the most money. System isn't flawed, it's just their basketball fans are like our football fans. Some schools fans just don't travel for basketball like UT fans and especially UK fans. Some also aren't willing to pay the high prices for an entire book of tickets for a 5 day tournament and would rather go scalp tickets from a schools fans that just lost for a few games.
 
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#3
#3
They demand and buy more than any other team. It's capitalism


The way to get other teams better represented is to "field" better teams so that their fans won't sell the tickets and actually attend
 
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#5
#5
Nobody really cares that much about it except UK fans, so there's not much you can do about it. Even when we were good, we didn't have that many show up, and Vandy is in freakin' Nashville and they can't get that many.
 
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#6
#6
Nobody really cares that much about it except UK fans, so there's not much you can do about it. Even when we were good, we didn't have that many show up, and Vandy is in freakin' Nashville and they can't get that many.

It really is sad that a Power 5 Conference doesn't have schools that would have at least 500 fans that want to attend the tourney.
Under my system, students get to go and the school is still buying the tickets. So, the SEC is still making money.
Surely, schools that have between 20,000-30,000 could sell 250 tix and get 250 students interested in going for free?
 
#7
#7
Nobody really cares that much about it except UK fans, so there's not much you can do about it. Even when we were good, we didn't have that many show up, and Vandy is in freakin' Nashville and they can't get that many.

This.

You could play it in Knoxville and Kentucky fans would outnumber everyone, you could play it in Alaska and Kentucky fans would outnumber everyone, it doesn't matter where or how it's allotted UK will always have the best showing of support.
 
#8
#8
It really is sad that a Power 5 Conference doesn't have schools that would have at least 500 fans that want to attend the tourney.
Under my system, students get to go and the school is still buying the tickets. So, the SEC is still making money.
Surely, schools that have between 20,000-30,000 could sell 250 tix and get 250 students interested in going for free?

Did you attend many UT games this year? Tennessee struggled to get 250 students to games on campus that are free and within walking distance from their dorm, highly doubt 250 students will be driving to whatever city and making hotel plans the weekend prior to most spring breaks.
 
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#9
#9
Nobody really cares that much about it except UK fans, so there's not much you can do about it. Even when we were good, we didn't have that many show up, and Vandy is in freakin' Nashville and they can't get that many.

Yep, pretty much.
 
#10
#10
You could have the tourney at Mars and UK fans would somehow find a way to get there and cover that red planet blue.
 
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#13
#13
It really is sad that a Power 5 Conference doesn't have schools that would have at least 500 fans that want to attend the tourney.
Under my system, students get to go and the school is still buying the tickets. So, the SEC is still making money.
Surely, schools that have between 20,000-30,000 could sell 250 tix and get 250 students interested in going for free?

It's really not that much different in every other P5 conference. The blue blood schools get into the tournaments (UK, Duke, UNC, Kansas, etc.) but outside of them, most don't reallly care. The ACC is probably the only one with more than 1 team that has a fanbase that really gets into it.
 
#14
#14
Did you attend many UT games this year? Tennessee struggled to get 250 students to games on campus that are free and within walking distance from their dorm, highly doubt 250 students will be driving to whatever city and making hotel plans the weekend prior to most spring breaks.

Wow, that is truly sad.
I can remember camping out as a student to get hoop tix.
 
#18
#18
The solution is to sell tickets to only the sessions your team is playing. Tennessee fans don't want to buy the entire book.

The sec should raise ticket prices for each sessions and have fans commit to buying tickets in every sessions their school plays in.
 
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#19
#19
What about limiting the number of teams in it and shortening the length of the tournament?
Nobody consistently does well except UK and Florida and Florida fans have a long drive and don't care about hoops.
 
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#20
#20
What about limiting the number of teams in it and shortening the length of the tournament?
Nobody consistently does well except UK and Florida and Florida fans have a long drive and don't care about hoops.

They could do like the baseball tournament and the bottom 2 teams don't make it.
 
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#22
#22
This will likely be an unpopular opinion but I'm all for just doing away with conference tournaments, auto bid goes to regular season conference winner. Allow teams to play an additional 2-3 games a year regular season to make up for it.
 
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#23
#23
This will likely be an unpopular opinion but I'm all for just doing away with conference tournaments, auto bid goes to regular season conference winner. Allow teams to play an additional 2-3 games a year regular season to make up for it.

What about top 8 teams go? Then you've got a 3 day tourney. Thursday Friday Saturday.

I would buy tickets to that.
 
#24
#24
The conference tournaments are a big waste of time for everyone involved if you ask me.

I'm with you. It makes no sense to me in the first place. Maybe it's because we've only won one time at the re-inaugural tourney.

One thing I dislike about tournament play in general is that the variety of competition is so stagnant. There are dozens and dozens and dozens of awesome matchups out there and conferences drag you thru the same opponents year after year and up to 2-3 times per year. It just could be so much more interesting if you ask me.
 

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